Chapter 99 - 98: Bizarre 130cm Height! 4 Clues

’Why hack her hands to pieces?’

’Shouldn’t a rapist be drawn to what he finds attractive?’

’Even after the rape, it makes no sense to pull up his pants and then hack her hands to pieces.’

’The perpetrator...’

’What was he thinking?’

"A student?"

Lost in thought, Li Jianye furrowed his brow and glanced at the school in the distance.

"The victim was a teacher. Could the perpetrator have been a student she disciplined?"

The victim’s hands were her most striking feature—they were beautiful. But besides that, they were also hands that held chalk.

"Revenge from a student?"

"Right, and the bloody gouge!"

As Li Jianye spoke, he seemed to recall something and quickly looked toward the bloody gouge.

"The gouge is very low on her body. There are no signs she was forced to the ground, which means the killer was also standing during the rape."

"And yet the wound is near her knee..."

Sexual positions are often dependent on the partners’ heights.

Some positions are impossible if one partner is too tall or too short.

Take the victim, for instance. If her partner were shorter, they wouldn’t be able to manage certain standing positions.

It would only be possible if they stood on something like a stool!

"If the killer is of average height, say between five-foot-seven and five-foot-eleven..."

Qian Hua followed that line of thought, then paused.

’How low is her knee?’

’A woman’s knee!’

A person’s lower leg makes up about one-fourth to one-fifth of their total height.

The victim, Chao Yang, was five-foot-five. Her lower leg would be about sixteen inches, and her thigh about twenty-two inches.

The wound is about two feet off the ground.

Two feet...

And if the killer was standing when he made that gouge...

Then the man himself becomes a subject of great speculation.

"A wound at two feet... that means if we assume he was standing normally, his crotch height would be about two feet."

Xu Huo said, visually estimating the corpse’s height.

For a person of average height, their pelvis would only be at that level if they were kneeling.

In fact, even while kneeling, he might not have been able to reach!

But the killer managed it...

"Legs that are two feet long?"

Wang Hu frowned.

"A crotch height of two feet... let’s say his hip bone is at twenty-eight inches."

"The rapist’s height... around four feet?"

’A four-foot-tall rapist?’

Actually, if you think about it that way, it fits the location of the wound perfectly.

The killer couldn’t reach...

That’s right. The victim was five-foot-five. While that’s an average height, for a four-foot-tall killer...

Her hips would probably come up to his chest.

Under these circumstances, committing the crime would be extremely difficult.

A normal man would hold a woman by the waist; he’d be holding her by the legs. While others could try different positions, he’d just be clinging to her like a limpet...

And the place he’d be clinging to, according to this logic, is exactly where the bloody gouge is!

If that’s really the case...

"A student!?"

Qian Hua’s expression changed. He frowned and looked at Xu Huo.

"Four feet tall... a height like that..."

"Not many adults are that short."

Even with a four-inch margin of error, we’re still only talking about someone who’s four-foot-three.

That height...

Let me put it this way.

In Xu Huo’s past life, it was standard for an eight-year-old to be between four-foot-three and four-foot-seven.

Some sixth graders were even taller than adults!

Compared to our current guess of four-foot-three...

This person is excessively short.

"A physical disability? Someone with no lower body?"

Qian Hua recalled that there were no footprints in the mud at the restroom entrance.

"If he had no lower body, you’d need a group of at least three to pull off this rape."

Xu Huo shook his head, dismissing the idea.

"Two to restrain her, and one to help him commit the rape."

"But if there were three of them, there would’ve been no need for the bloody gouge."

Which means the perpetrator most likely isn’t missing any limbs.

He’s truly four-foot-three, fully intact!

"A student?"

Qian Hua voiced his suspicion again.

"A student who’s four-foot-three?"

This is a public restroom, less than two hundred meters from the school.

Around here, people who are four-foot-three are everywhere.

But a four-foot-three person capable of leaving behind... fluid... that’s not common.

"Generally speaking, even with precocious puberty, it shouldn’t happen this early."

Xu Huo frowned but didn’t refute his point.

These days, it’s rare for someone that young to have such aggressive thoughts. They might not even know what sex is.

To be honest, Eastern Country People are both open and reserved when it comes to sex.

They’re open when it comes to swearing, or in how uninhibited adults can be when discussing it among themselves.

As for being reserved...

Ninety-nine percent of parents will not provide their children with sex education.

Schools don’t either. Middle school biology just skims the topic.

In fact, porn provides more sex education than parents and schools combined!

Most people’s sexual awakening comes from porn, not their parents or school.

But that raises another question.

The year 2003...

Where would a kid get their hands on porn in 2003!?

DVDs? Honestly, you couldn’t buy a pornographic DVD back then even if you wanted to!

So, a student of that age, back then, probably wouldn’t have even thought about the differences between boys and girls in that way.

Even with precocious puberty, the thought wouldn’t occur. Knowledge doesn’t just materialize along with physical development!

"But, there’s no one around here besides students."

Qian Hua said, frowning.

True enough, they were stuck going around in circles.

Xu Huo fell silent for a moment, then shook his head.

"Let’s review the key points."

"One: The victim went into the men’s restroom willingly. This suggests the killer either lured her in or the two of them were familiar with each other."

"Two: This was the work of a group—a team effort involving one man and one woman!"

"Three: The victim’s hands were hacked at. The killer harbors a strange hatred for them."

"Four: The killer is likely unattractive. Based on our guess, his height is around four-foot-three."

For now, that was all the crime scene could tell them.

Xu Huo considered using Wang Die’s Scent.

But the scents in the restroom were too chaotic. Dozens, if not a hundred, people had been through. That, combined with the overwhelming stench, made a detailed analysis impossible. Xu Huo felt his vision go dark after just one small whiff.

"Let’s get the body back to the station."

He glanced around the scene.

They had gathered most of the information. The medical examiner—the one who’d switched careers to sell insurance—had been notified. By now, he should have arrived at the station.

"Take her back!"

At his command.

Several Police Officers holding a body bag hurried inside.

...

...

There are billions of people in this world.

It’s filled with all sorts of people and every kind of deviant imaginable. Rich, poor, male, female—every type you can and can’t imagine exists!

Their depraved acts can defy comprehension.

At the very least, this current case was enough to make some of the junior Police Officers feel faint.

Sexual assault... they’d seen cases like that before.

But they had never seen a case where someone gouged a bloody hole in the victim’s thigh and then raped them...

「On the night of the 25th, at 10:30 p.m.」

At the Zhaozhou City Criminal Investigation Division.

The division chief rushed into the office, his face pale with panic, and approached Xu Huo, who was standing before a blackboard, organizing his thoughts.

Seeing him approach, Xu Huo raised an eyebrow.

"Is the M.E.’s autopsy report out?"

He, Wang Hu, and the others had been there all day, trying to piece together the information they’d gathered that morning.

But no matter which theory they pursued, they always ended up back where they started. The case hadn’t progressed one bit.

All they could do was discuss the case while waiting for the autopsy report.

Given the time, the report really should be ready by now, but...

"Something’s happened!"

Chief Zhang of the Zhaozhou City Criminal Investigation Division looked at the men before him, his face pale with panic, and stammered:

"Fifteen minutes ago, dispatch got a call. The caller claimed to have found a dead body in Yihe Park!"

"Officers rushed to the scene and confirmed... it’s a..."

"Serial murder case!"

’A serial murder case?’

’That means... a second body!?’

Wang Hu and the others froze. A second later, their pupils contracted.

’Another victim!?’

"Let’s go!"

The team wasted no more time.

Forgetting all about the autopsy report, they rushed downstairs and piled into their cars.

A convoy of police cars, their red and blue lights flashing, sped down the road toward the crime scene.

The crime scene was in a place called Yihe Park.

As the name suggested, it was a park.

The park was huge, but only a small portion of it was developed. The vast majority was an untouched forest.

What people would colloquially call "the woods."

And it was in these woods, a place few people ever visited...

Now, countless police officers swarmed the area. Beams of light cut through the darkness, and conspicuous caution tape was strung up everywhere!

There was a body here...

A woman’s body!

「10:47 p.m.」

Xu Huo stood in the patch of woods and crouched down.

A harsh white floodlight hung overhead, blindingly illuminating the ground and cutting through the night sky.

Before him lay the decomposing body of a woman.

"Time of death was about four days ago."

"Another female victim, same M.O., same type of wound."

"However, unlike Chao Yang, this victim’s face was severely hacked, while her hands are unscathed."

Xu Huo activated [Joy Eye]. His vision instantly became crystal clear. His eyes swept across the scene, absorbing most of the available information.

The crime scene was a small patch of woods; there was no mud to hold any footprints.

But there were fallen leaves and sandy soil!

It was late October. Autumn had arrived, the temperature had plummeted, and the green leaves of summer were beginning to fall.

A long dry spell had left the ground parched, so the slightest touch would leave a mark.

And it was this very information that proved the killer here was the same one from the restroom!

"Give me a flashlight."

Xu Huo said after a moment’s thought.

’He could actually see perfectly fine. The [Joy Eye] ability was powerful, giving him vision at night on par with a falcon!’

’But he had to keep up appearances. Otherwise, the Special Seventh Bureau might really want to take him in for a few studies...’

"Here."

Wang Hu handed him a flashlight.

Without hesitation, Xu Huo switched on the flashlight and aimed it at the corpse’s lower body.

Instantly, the rotting, foul-smelling area was illuminated. Beside him, Qian Hua instinctively grimaced.

Xu Huo paid him no mind, his eyes fixed intently on the victim’s thigh.

The second victim’s thigh...